All of that takes focus away from what’s going on as you hurtle through space in your tin can at high speed, oblivious to the driver who has stopped short or hesitated, children running into the streets, someone making a quick turn in front of you, or huge potholes or construction.

As smartphones become a bigger part of most lives and the demands of connection make it easier than ever to focus on business, social plans or daily schedules, the incidents of distracted driving are increasing.

The United States Department of Transportation reports that 3,328 people were killed in crashes caused by a distracted driver in 2012, up from 3,360 in 2011. It adds that 421,000 people were injured in crashes involving distracted driving in 2012, a 9 percent increase from the 387,000 injured during 2011, when almost one in five crashes involved someone engaged in distracted driving.

The problem isn’t confined to the United States, although it is worse here. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study in 2011 compared United States distracted drivers to those in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom. That study determined that the United States had a higher percentage of drivers who were talking, sending email or texts, or reading while driving than the other European countries.

Of all the things you can do to distract yourself from the road, texting is considered the worst offense. That’s because it involves so many physical resources, including mental, physical and cognitive attention. You have to juggle the phone, mentally write your response, input it into the phone and then send it, then usually look at the phone to make sure the message was sent. That’s a lot of time taken away from watching where you’re going.